The Sims 3 is an addition to Will Wright's The Sims series, minus Will Wright. As with the previous games, it's a life simulation game which lets you control little people...
These 'little people', unlike their predecessors, are rather bland yet clichéd. Bland because of they're repetitive. Clichéd because of the new personality 'Traits' system ('Evil' Sims cackle madly, for example. Would sound funny and caricatured at first, however trust me, it gets old. They will repeat this at least 20 times a 'Sim' day.)
Not even your Sims' appearance can be interesting, thanks to their new bubbleheads. To change their faces even in the approximate way you want them to look, you might as well spend days.
Now, with the removal of the Body Shop (a tool that came with The Sims 2 to allow you to create and edit genetics in the game), it's even harder to create unique and interesting content. Every time you download a game patch, you have to wait for a patch for your favourite hairstyles and hacks.
Another bad move courtesy of EA is the premade Stepford. I was perfectly happy creating my own dystopia, with its towering buildings, slaves, rebels and SECRET BLOODY POLICE. Now they come along and say "Don't worry, in The Sims 3 you'll have a new town to play with, it's called Sunset Valley and nothing interesting happens."

I would love to praise the new 'open neighbourhood', but why bother for such a mediocre game?

The Sims 3 is an amazing new game. With your own little Stepford to clog up your hard drive, now you can quickly and easily bore yourself to death!

A game still being created.
It is the sequel to The Sims 2, which is the sequel to The Sims.

Basically, The Sims franchise is all about controlling peoples lives.

You.
Are.
God.

There will be many new upgrades to the game such as:
- Seamless Neighborhood: Your Sim can visit neighbors, parks and shops without a loading screen.
- All the neighboring Sims will live their life and age simultaneously as your Sim (They'll get married, get jobs,etc).

- Sims 3 have Traits. Choose 5 from around 80 types like Dreamer, Evil, Playful, etc. These Traits will affect how a Sim behaves towards others and affects their moods, like the mood of an Outdoorsperson will raise when he/she is outside. An evil Sim may slap another Sim.

There is now an official website for The Sims 3-
www.thesims3.ea.com

Many people, including myself, are very excited for when this game ships in 2009.

The 3rd installment of The Sims franchise. It is a life-simulation, where you create characters, known as Sims, and live out their lives.

You get to choose how your Sim looks, what their personality is, their family size, their house, everything about their lives is created by you. You must also pay attention to your Sim's needs and wants. Needs are what keep your Sims alive and/or well (hunger, bladder, hygiene, etc). Wants are things that your Sims want to do, which you can either acknowledge or deny. Things like trying out fishing, or try a new recipe, etc.

One of the new features in the Sims 3 is the Open Neighbourhood, which basically means you can go from your house to downtown without loading screen. This was not possible in The Sims or The Sims 2.

Now, for some of the bad aspects of The Sims 3.

In general, EA (the The Sims creator) is known for creating MANY expansion packs for The Sims games. They even create "item packs" which are packages of new items like furniture, or hairstyles for Sims, etc.

Even worse, in The Sims 3, they have also implemented this new Sims online store where you buy items with real money over the internet. Many items are purposely taken out of The Sims 3 so that you have to buy them through either the endless expansion packs, or the Sims online store. Honestly, EA loves to take all of it's LOYAL customers' money.